Day_35 : Master Bathroom

I've obviously been swamped since I last updated this blog, with the new job and all the wedding preparations. Yes, that's what the deadline in the countdown box is for.

Now, lets check out the bathroom progress, shall we? The fiancee's obviously impatient as she checks it out at ninja speed.



Anyway, in the days that have passed, our master bath has gone from this:



To this:


Had the walls made groovy for the plumbing to go thru


The front bricked up, and a new window created


Stairwell side sealed up, new window created


Door frame in


Walls receive cement render, which absorbs the light making it kinda dark inside.
That's the rear window of the bathroom, which allows some light to pass thru to the stairwell.


And the front window, main source of natural light.


Light points done


With the tiles on. Front side.


Rear side


View thru the door, very much brighter now

Day_07: Pouring The 1st Floor

 Today they started bright and early mixing up the concrete for what will become the master bath floor/living hall extension ceiling. Mixing, shovelling, and hoisting the stuff up manually, bucket by bucket.


And as the stuff below gets less and less, this gets more and more.


And that's the main progress for the day folks. Where there was none before, now we have a floor. Now get out of here and do something more fun than watch concrete dry. Scram.

Day_06: Prep For The Pour

Dropped in the house today for a discussion with our contractor, and just to observe the men at work.

Today's big job for them is getting the rebar in place before pouring the concrete for the first floor bathroom tomorrow. The wall/floor for the extension is drilled, and the rebar inserted into the holes. The rebars are then interlinked and tied with wires.


The old master bath has also been totalled. It's all wide open space now.
Before and after:



Discovered another problem... the place where I wanted to relocate the master bedroom door to is obstructed by a pillar in the wall. One wouldn't usually expect to find a pillar in the middle of a wall, usually they're in the corners.


But on further inspection, that pillar is the continuation of the main pillar from the ground floor up. Problem highlighted in red. Nuts, I shud have realised that earlier.


The window on the staircase landing where the new master bath is to be build was also demolished.

Day_05: Concrete formwork

I rolled by the house today and was glad to see 3 men hard at work, with some real progress being made.
Scaffolding was up and the formwork for the concrete slab which was to form the bathroom floor/living hall ceiling was being constructed.



View from the inside looking out


View from upstairs


Also, they've cleared much of the rubble that was on the floor inside.


But what I actually came to the house to do was to measure the hashing for the downstairs toilet bowl. For the uninitiated, you need to measure from the wall to the centre of the shitpipe. Toilet bowl also got specs, yo.

APPROVED!

We finally, FINALLY got our MPSJ approval at 5pm yesterday. *Sigh of relief*

Anyway, our contractor already decided to go ahead with or without approval if not there's no way the deadline could be met. Good job our approval came that same day as well.

So, went to the house for a site inspection and there's been progress. I like progress.

This is the best sign: It means work is starting proper.


Supplies: Cement and rebar. Glad to see our contractor supplying fairly good quality cement.



Inside, things have been moving. First signs, the old kitchen sink has been demolished. Before and after:



Upstairs, the master bathroom has been partially demolished. Before and after:



This is good news. It means no unsightly concrete column to cause problems, and more open space :)

I Love Concrete - Low Cost High Style

Okay, not everyone will agree with me on the above.
Fact is, design sense and a limited budget don't play well together.
Finishings in particular, cost a lot of money. Tiles are expensive!
So screw the tiles and expensive wall finishings, enter concrete. Bare concrete.

I love concrete. MMMmmm... crunchy







These are from a different crib. Seems quite do-able. Hmm...

DAY_02: Rubble

Progress for the day:

• Kitchen walls demolished
• Common toilet new door opening made

It's interesting to see the old kitchen go from this to this to this






And the view from inside the kitchen looking out into the living area.
Looks that much more spacious. Gotta love open concept.



Toilet before and after.



New relocated toilet door opening.